The political campaign has now been buried with the declaration of results. Time for work began ticking. I must admit the inauguration of the NAM radiated soothing hope of building solid democratic process in new Gambia. The time to work and put country before scoring political goals for one party or the other just got started yesterday. However, it is pertinent to appreciate we cannot build democracy on the foundation of legal blunders. If any NAM observes and points out a legal error, it is the responsibility of all to ensure it is rectified before brushing it under the carpet or viewing the person as a stumbling block. Loving a government means holding it accountable genuinely but not excusing it’s excesses. Hon Sallah’s reminding his colleagues and the Chief Justice that it would have been appropriate to gazette the opening of parliament before swearing in members is a procedural convention. He eventually rescinded and took the oath after exchanging notes with Hon Sedia Jatta, a veteran in the house. Halifa’s take generated a lot of healthy debate enticing others to run back to the constitution for answers. Others, as usual, got personal and immature.

 
Lamentably, most of us are only mixing and matching our perceived opinions with laws and conventions of our land to excuse legal omission by our leaders. It is now time to build solid governance institutions and a democracy devoid of avoidable legal errors. Secondly, our concluded concepts of certain people have limited our objectivity to genuinely appreciate their impartial opinions of the way forward. Yes Halifa is human and not omniscient but most often in place regarding constitutional procedures. Love him or hate him he knows it inside out. Bamba Sering Mass also affirmed, “Come on we are not all perfect and even enemies or critics of Hon Sallah cannot doubt his knowledge of the Constitution but he that comes to ‘Equity must come with clean hand'”. Most importantly, we must stop viewing our NAMs in rose-tinted party lenses. They are expected to represent the nation and enact laws that are in the interest of all. Until we recognise that democracy is not sustainable on bad laws and legal blunders we will continue to recycle the 1997 constitution in new forms. Hon Sallah, in some quarters is accused of cheap popularity and scoring a faul political goal for not raising his objection before members sat to take their oath. Here, it gets tricky. Would he not have also been charged with jumping the guns? Notwithstanding, I concurred with those who opined he should have raised the alarm earlier than he did. His last minute actions equate throwing a spanner in the wheel. Similarly, some did ponder who was right, Halifa or the Chief Justice? Both were right according to the constitution but their difference lies in one’s conviction and interpretation of it.

 
It is interesting to note section 34 of the Constitution stipulates the Proclamation to be gazetted which is Halifa’s stance. However, in Section 97(1) of the Constitution provides: “The first session of the National Assembly after a general election shall be held in such place in The Gambia as the President may, by Proclamation, appoint.” In this instance, the president is only required to summon parliament. It does not necessitate gazetting for parliament in its first session. Therefore, the Chief Justice is equally right on this section. Madi Jobarteh, however, disagreed with the Chief Justice. “Hence I do not agree with the CJ that a verbal public announcement could suffice for a gazette”. He went on to raise fundamental queries, “The question therefore is how does a president do a proclamation? Could he go to the national television or sit in his office or at the market to make a statement, or should he, in addition gazette that verbal announcement as well?” Here lies the issue of personal convection, interpretation and understanding of laws. Ideally, a gazette would do the magic and avoided this debate. In its absence logic and reasoning become the barometer for informed deduction. Obviously, any proclamation or notice for public consumption from the president office must reach its target to bear usefulness and the only places are a gazette and GRTS. The most important thing here is the lessons learned. We must, if we are serious about contributing meaningfully to the democratisation process, be prepared to know our constitution, Conventions, Financial Instructions and General Orders. These will help us appreciate governance and hold our leaders accountable without prejudice.

 
Some are challenging me for engaging President Barrow in my series and branded me an opposition. Well if holding my government accountable qualifies me as an opposition then happy days.
We are all satisfied that there isn’t a maroon in the NAM this election term. But majority of them are inexperienced and we are told to allow them learn on the job. I am uncomfortable with that premise. While parliament is in recession, they can have seminars and workshops to prepare them for their herculean task of law and policy making. Very soon they will be subdivided into committees with specialist responsibilities. On the job training alone would be asking a blind to lead the deaf in an expedition.

Sulayman Jeng
Birmingham, UK

By Alagi Yorro Jallow

 
Mahatma Gandhi had once said, to judge how civilized a nation is, just look at how it treats its own minorities. Going by this yardstick, The Gambia does not make a passing grade since Jammeh.
In most countries, minorities suffer from so-called “horizontal inequality.” While on paper they may enjoy legal equality, in real life, the playing field remains uneven. The Gambia is no different.
It’s worth remembering that Proportional Representation (PR) is a key enabler of minorities in politics especially women and Christians whose representation fell too short in elective office since Independence.

 
Gambians must celebrate and acknowledge the women who have braved the rigors of political life to make it to elected positions and all those who participated in our electoral politics. Women are still more than half the population yet still Gambian women have only less representation – at best with fifty-three members only two women elected. This National Assembly is the only assembly in the world in which men severely outnumbered women.

 
In rebuilding our nation, we should make a conscious decision to put inclusiveness and equality at the heart of the reconstruction process. I propose a bill to be put forward by the National Assembly members to introduce a quota system for female representation in National Assembly and women call upon to take up the demanding tasks of physical and social reconstruction of the nation, social healing, unity and reconciliation, peace building in times of political healing, justice and governance program.

 
Most people do not support a formal quota system for achieving greater representation in Parliament. Most women wish to be selected on their merits and on the basis, that they are the best person for the role, not because of their gender.

 
Political scientists have agreed for years that PR systems lead to more equal gender representation as well as minority representation in parliaments, and a series of studies by political scientists have shown that more women have usually been elected under PR systems than majoritarian systems (Norris, 1985; Matland, 1998; Reynolds, 1999; Kenworthy and Malami, 1999; Siaroff, 2000; Moser, 2001; Salmond 2006

 
One reason why the issue of minority rights is not on the political radar screen of the government is the absence of their political voice. In most countries, the Parliament is the venue where a nation’s political agenda is discussed and adopted. Giving Christians, women and other minorities a stronger voice in our Parliament could help put the spotlight on the status of minorities.

 
A wise man, suggested that Christians and women should demand their proportional representation in Parliament. Many countries have it, why can’t we have the same? (To be perfectly clear, Some Asian countries reserved seats for minorities, not proportional representation per se). A similar demand has been made in Asia countries with predominantly Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians populations to allocate seats for religious minorities.

 
The quota system in Rwanda has clearly helped to speed up women’s participation in politics. Women have proved that they can make a positive difference to peoples’ lives
Women in the world perform 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, but earn only 10% of the income and own only 1% of the property,” the UNDP’s newest goodwill ambassador, Connie Britton, said earlier. In politics, 21.8% of national parliamentarians were female as of 1 July 2014, a slow increase from 11.3% in 1995, according to UN Women.

 
In Rwanda, there are more female elected officials than men, with 64% of parliamentary seats held by women. This is partly due to the use of a quota system to increase the number of women in parliament. The constitution written in 2003 states that Rwanda commits itself to granting women “at least 30% of posts in decision-making organs”. That same year, women won 48.8% of seats in the lower house of parliament.

 
Rwanda’s success in increasing the number of seats held by women in its parliament displays the efficacy of using quota systems, and shows how beneficial they can be in getting women’s voices heard and considered when discussing national affairs

 
The idea of proportional representation has also been embraced by many scholars. Dr. Nazrul Islam, a Bangladeshi economist now working with the United Nations, in his new book, Governance for Development (Palgrave Mcmillan, New York 2016), has argued vociferously on why countries should consider switching to proportional election. Among other things, such an electoral arrangement will enable minority groups to be represented in accordance with their numerical strength, rendering the legislature to be more inclusive. “They can pursue their interests and demands more freely and directly, without having to depend on bigger parties.” As a result, he concludes, proportional election could encourage smaller parties and groups to channel their grievances through the Parliament, rather than through extra-parliamentary means.

 
Reserve seats or proportional representation, whatever the course may be, the time has come to consider ways to ensure that The Gambia’s minorities have a voice on matters that matter most to them. Parliament could be the place where this could have its most logical beginning

I begin by congratulating Gambians for successfully taking another step towards bringing our country back, this time electing national assembly members to serve as the legislative branch of government. Special congratulations to the United Democratic Party (UDP) who won 31 of the 53 districts up for grabs. The results leave no doubts about which party has the most loyal voters and they now enjoy a significant majority in the parliament, enough to legally bully their way through any legislation if all their members of parliament choose to vote together. Over the past few days, the UDP supporters have been celebrating their well-earned victory. Like many Gambians, one particular celebration caught my attention and is the focus of this piece. UDP leader, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe is on video speaking to supporters before bursting into song at the end. Now, i know it’s become taboo to even bat an eyelid at Darboe and UDP but there’s also that saying about “fools dare to tread where angels fear to go”? Yeah, that one! Sign me up for Fool School but this is too important to ignore.

In the “unnoticed” part of the video, Lawyer Darboe publicly refers to our Women’s Affairs Minister, Fatoumatta Tambajang, as “The Honorable Vice President”. This, despite all the controversy surrounding the numerous failed attempts by the Barrow administration to make her the VP…but I’ll get back to the significance of that utterance later. The part that unsettled many Gambians was the fact that, unprompted, Mr. Darboe led the singing of “Lawyer Darboe yeh bankoe taa”, which translates to “Lawyer Darboe has taken over the country”. I found these words and that video disturbing on so many levels. Thankfully, the ensuing discussions on social media showed that i was not the only one. As usual, the good lawyer’s self-appointed lawyers were quick to his defence. One of the explanations given was that Mr. Darboe did not mean the words literally and that it’s just a song from 1996. That explanation almost sounds reasonable but I upon closer examination, I found still found it very worrisome for the following reasons.

For starters, one of requirements of a good leader is to have a very good understanding of the people, the times and the pulse of those they’re leading. Mr. Darboe should understand that we are in 2017, not 1996. Gambians have been through great trauma under a brutal dictatorship, led by a man who used words like “deka bi maako morm” (I own the country). Barely 3 months after getting rid of that regime, there has been a lot of political and tribal tension which makes this a very delicate time in our nation’s history. The rhetoric on social media has revealed some deep tribal tensions that many of us wanted to believe do not exist in our peaceful Gambia. The war of words, explicit and subliminal, has been raging on between Mandinkas, Fulas, Jolas and Wolofs. We have seen the extent of devastation that ethnic and tribal conflicts have caused in other parts of Africa and our leaders cannot afford to use words that have even the slightest potential to inflame tensions. So hearing those potentially inflamatory words from the leader of the biggest political party leaves me with 4 possible explanations.

1. The leader is out of touch with the masses and does not fully understand the current heightened ethnic/tribal tensions fuelled by politics.
2. The leader understands the tensions and does not care.
3. The leader understands the tensions but chooses to further stoke the fires because he believes it works to his advantage.
4. The leader simply got carried away with emotions and did not fully think about his choice of words at the time.

Given Mr. Darboe’s status as an elderly statesman who has a very good chance of eventually rising to the presidency, any of the first 3 would be scary for The Gambia. I therefore hope that option 4 above wins the day if and when Mr. Darboe chooses to explain his choice of song.

The second reason I found the song so disturbing was the suggestion of total disregard for the current president. Many Gambians and non-Gambians are questioning whether President Barrow is capable of running and in control of the government. One foreign journalist recently referred to him as an “accidental President” and it’s probably the one time the public saw Mr. Barrow display any emotion in an interview as he defended himself, emphasizing that his presidency was no accident. At such a time, I would have expected the man he publicly referred to as his “Political Father” to use language that will empower Mr. Barrow in the eyes of the world. Singing that “Darboe has taken over the country” only emasculates the president and further strengthens the rumor that Barrow is a mere puppet being told what to do. Singing that “Barrow has taken over the country” would have been a lot more helpful. Better yet, “Gambians have taken over the country” would have been even better as it would be a UNIFYING message – one that the country needs right now.

Thirdly, when i first read the complaints about Darboe’s song, I did not take it as a big deal because I thought it was his supporters singing the words and he just sang along to be polite. That was excusable for me even if it would have been in poor taste. I was shocked and disappointed to see that the song was started and led by the leader himself! I really pray that our leaders are not so conceited as to publicly lead their supporters on songs praising themselves! The sycophancy problem is one we’re trying to get away from and we hope New Gambia will not be led by new “HIV curing Babili Mansas”. Darboe has been in the public eye for decades and I want to believe we would have seen it by now if he had an ego of such disturbing proportion. Again, I want to believe that it was one slip-up driven by out of control emotions that will not be repeated.

Another explanation I heard from the lawyer’s self-appointed defence lawyers online was that Darboe only sang those words but they should not be taken literally. That explanation would have been comforting except for what we witnessed in US politics. It happens to be the same argument Donald Trump’s supporters used when they told us that we should “take him seriously but not literally” during the campaign. We were told that it was just rhetoric and he would never “institute a Muslim ban” or “build a wall”. Sure enough, Mr. Trump has given us all the more reason to follow the advice to “believe them when someone first tells us who they truly are”. Coming from that experience, the UDP leader’s words sent shivers down my spine. Trump has taught us to believe what leaders tell us rather than distrust our ears and believe what we want to hear.

Finally, back to Mr. Darboe’s reference to the Women’s Affairs Minister as “The Honorable Vice President”. Said separately, I may have brushed it off as just a slip of the tongue. However, when followed by singing that he has taken over the country, I am left wondering whether it’s not deliberate and that he is sending us a message. Despite realizing that their attempts to force a constitutional amendment was found unconstitutional, despite her never having been sworn-in, despite thousands of Gambians calling for the administration to appoint a legitimate vice president, Mr. Darboe’s insistence on publicly referring to Madam Tambajang as “The Honorable Vice President” is very worrisome. Oh, and Darboe also tried to “lawyer” us with an unconvincing argument that the constitution does not give specific timelines for the appointment of a Vice President thereby justifying the administration’s failure to appoint one for over 3 months. One can easily connect the dots to reach a plausible conclusion that the real message from Darboe is “I have taken over the country and will do as i please…and my anointed one shall be Vice President by any means necessary”.

The Gambia has been through great pain. We finally broke the chains of bondage to get rid of an autocratic ruler who killed, jailed and maimed because his delusions led him to believe that “he owned the country”. We believe that GAMBIANS HAVE NOW TAKEN OVER THE COUNTRY and that the leaders we elect are there to serve us and not own us. Great trust has been shown to Darboe and his party by the overwhelming majority they were elected to the national assembly with. We pray they appreciate the sanctity of that responsibility and take great care in the execution of their duty. Every action must be critically evaluated. What our leaders do may not be seen by all but what they say travels far and fast…and can have grave consequences on those who hear them and they way they interpret the words. So actions matter, but WORDS MATTER TOO.

Sana Sarr